THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD.

The heart, which is the principal organ of circulation, is placed within the breast between the two lobes of the lungs. It is a fleshy substance, and has two cavities which are separated from each other by a valve. From the left ventricle a large blood-vessel, called the aorta, proceeds, and soon divides into several branches, which ascend and descend by innumerable ramifications, become smaller as they proceed, and penetrate every part of the body. When the right ventricle contracts, the blood is propelled into the arteries with so much force, that it reaches the minutest extremities of their most remote ramifications. This motion is called the pulse, which is merely the effect of the pulsation of the heart, and is quicker or slower according to the frequency of its contractions.

When the blood arrives at the extremities of the arteries distributed through the body, Nature employs it in the wisest manner. Certain vessels absorb the watery, oily, and saline portions. In some parts of the body, where the arteries are distributed, the secretion of milk, fat, and various fluids is performed the remaining portion of blood flows into the extremities of the veins. These vessels gradually enlarge in size, till they form very large tubes, which return the blood back to the right ventricle of the heart. The blood is then propelled into the pulmonary artery, which disperses it through the lungs by innumerable small branches. It is there exposed to the action of the air, is afterwards received by the pulmonary veins, and by them is conveyed to the left auricle of the heart. This contracts, and sends it into the left ventricle, which, also contracting, pushes it into the aorta, whence it circulates through every part of the body.

For this complicated function four cavities, as we have seen, become necessary, and four are accordingly provided: two, called Ventricles, which send out the blood; viz., one into the lungs, in the first instance, and the other into the mass after

it has returned from the lungs : two others, called Auricles, which receive the blood from the veins; viz., one as it comes immediately from the body, the other as the same blood comes a second time after its circulation through the lungs; for, without the lungs, one of each would have been sufficient. Such is the admirable circulation of the blood in man and most animals. But there is still much obscurity in this interesting subject. We meet with wonders here that prove how incapable the human mind is of explaining this work of Divine wisdom. "The wisdom of the Creator," says Hamburgher, "is in nothing seen more gloriously than in the heart;" and how well does it execute its office! An anatomist, who understood the structure of the heart, might say beforehand that it would play; but he would expect, I think, from the complexity of its mechanism, and the delicacy of many of its parts, that it should always be liable to derangement, or that it would soon work itself out. Yet this wonderful machine shall go night and day for eighty years together, at the rate of 100,000 strokes every twenty-four hours, having at every stroke a great resistance to overcome, and shall continue this action for this length of time without disorder and without weariness!

From Keill's Anatomy we learn that each ventricle will contain at least one ounce of blood. The heart contracts 4,000 times in one hour, from which it follows that there pass through the heart every hour 4,000 ounces, or 350 pounds of blood. The whole mass of blood is said to be about 25 pounds, so that a quantity equal to the whole mass of blood passes through the heart 14 times in one hour, which is about once in every four minutes.

"Consider," says Paley, "what an affair this is, when we come to very large animals. The aorta of a whale is larger in the bore than the main pipe of some water-works; and the water roaring in its passages through a pipe of that description is inferior in impetus and velocity to the blood gushing from the whale's heart." Dr. Hunter, in his account of the

dissection of a whale, says, "The aorta measured a foot in diameter. Ten or fifteen gallons of blood are thrown out of the heart at a stroke, with an immense velocity, through a tube of a foot diameter. The whole idea fills the mind with wonder."

The account here given will not convey to a reader ignorant of anatomy anything like an accurate notion of the form, action, or the use of the parts, or of the circulation of the blood (nor can any short and popular account do this); but it is abundantly sufficient to give him some idea of the wonderful mechanism bestowed on his frame, for the continuance of life, by the hand of a Being who is all-wise, all-powerful, and all-good, and whose bountiful care is equally extended to the preservation and happiness of the humblest creature in existence, which has been, equally with ourselves, called into life at his Divine behest, and for a wise and good purpose.

THE DEATH OF VIRGINIA.

MACAULAY.

Straightway Virginius led the maid a little space aside,
To where the reeking shambles stood, piled up with horn and
hide,

Close to yon low, dark archway, where, in a crimson flood,
Leaps down to the great sewer the gurgling stream of blood.
Hard by, a flesher on a block had laid his whittle down;
Virginius caught the whittle up, and hid it in his gown :
And then his eye grew very dim, and his throat began to
swell,

And in a hoarse, changed voice he spoke "Farewell, sweet child, farewell!

Oh! how I loved my darling! Though stern I sometimes be, To thee thou know'st I was not so- -who could be so to thee? And how my darling loved me! how glad she was to hear My footsteps on the threshold, when I came back last year; And how she danced with pleasure, to see my civic crown,

And took my sword, and hung it up, and brought me forth

my gown!

Now all these things are over—yes, all thy pretty ways,

Thy needlework, thy prattle, thy snatches of old lays :

And none will grieve when I go forth, or smile when I return,
Or watch beside the old man's bed, or weep upon his urn!
The house that was the happiest within the Roman walls,
The house that envied not the wealth of Capua's marble halls,
Now, for the brightness of thy smile, must have eternal gloom,
And for the music of thy voice, the silence of the tomb !
The time is come: see how he points his eager hand this way!
See how his eyes gloat on thy grief, like a kite's upon the
prey!

With all his wit, he little deems that, spurned, betrayed, bereft,

Thy father hath, in his despair, one fearful refuge left :

He little deems that in this hand I clutch what still can save Thy gentle youth from taunts and blows, the portions of the

slave;

Yea, and from nameless evil, that passeth taunt and blow, Foul outrage, which thou knowest not, which thou shalt never know!

Then clasp me round the neck once more, and give me one more kiss ;

And now, my own dear little girl, there is no way but this-” With that he lifted high the steel, and smote her in the side, And in her blood she sank to earth, and with one sob she died.

ON THE AMERICAN WAR.

PITT.

I cannot, my Lords-will not join in congratulation on misfortune and disgrace. This, my Lords, is a perilous and tremendous moment. It is not a time for adulation; the smoothness of flattery cannot save us in this rugged and

awful crisis. It is now necessary to instruct the throne in the language of truth. We must, if possible, dispel the delusion and darkness which envelop it, and display in its full danger, and genuine colours, the ruin which is brought to our doors. Can ministers still presume to expect support in their infatuation? Can Parliament be so dead to its dignity and duty as to give their support to measures thus obtruded and forced upon them ?-measures, my Lords, which have reduced this late flourishing empire to scorn and contempt! But yesterday, and Britain might have stood against the world ; now, none so poor as to do her reverence! The people whom we at first despised as rebels, but whom we now acknowledge as enemies, are abetted against us, supplied with every military store, have their interest consulted, and their ambassadors entertained by our inveterate enemy; and ministers do not dare not interpose with dignity or effect. The desperate state of our army abroad is in part known. No man more highly esteems and honours the British troops than I do; I know their virtues and their valour; I know they can achieve anything but impossibilities; and I know that the conquest of British America is an impossibility. cannot, my Lords, you cannot conquer America. What is your present situation there? We do not know the worst; but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothing and suffered much. You may swell every expense, accumulate every assistance, and extend your traffic to the shambles of every German despot;-your attempts will be for ever vain and impotent-doubly so indeed from this mercenary aid on which you rely for it irritates to an incurable resentment the minds of your adversaries, to over-run them with the mercenary sons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my armsnever, NEVER, NEVER

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